No Heat-Related Illnesses or Power Outages in Brighton Today

Brighton is beating the heat.

According to the Brighton Police Department and the Livingston County Central Dispatch, no heat illness-related emergencies have been reported in Brighton today, a day that was predicted to have temperatures of over 100 degrees.

Brighton, along with most of southeast Michigan, has been under an excessive heat warning the past week, with the heat index pushing temperatures from the mid-90s to 100 degrees or more. According to the National Weather Service, the advisory is supposed to end on Friday at 8 p.m.

Jeffrey Boyd, director of the Livingston County Emergency Medical Services, said there have been about six to 10 heat-related emergencies they've responded to in Livingston County in the past week. He could not specify if any were in Brighton due to privacy concerns. The Brighton Police Department said that they had not responded to any heat-related emergencies in Brighton since at least Tuesday.

However, Brighton is faring well with no major power outages due to the heat. A constantly updating outage map on DTE Energy's website showed no outages in the Brighton and Brighton Township area on Thursday afternoon.

The lack of outages may be the reason why Brighton has no cooling centers currently open, according to the Department of Public Services.

The Howell Recreation Center, at 925 W. Grand River, is open as a cooling center until the end of the excessive heat advisory on Friday. It is open until 7 p.m. tonight and 5 p.m. Friday, and is available to anyone who wants to cool off,  said Andrew Stone of the Howell Area Parks and Recreation Authority.

Although power is still running in Brighton, the that DTE Energy customers could still be subject to rolling blackouts in the near future, due to the stress of the heat on the power grid.

Here are some tips from Boyd to avoid any heat illnesses:

• Wear loose, lighter clothing to allow proper sweating.
• Avoid places that radiate a lot of heat, like parking lots.
• Avoid strenuous outdoor activities during the hottest part of the day, which he said was typically noon to 4 p.m.
• Stay hydrated, with Boyd suggesting six to eight 12-ounce glasses of water a day at these temperatures.
• People on prescription medications should check them to see if there are any instructions pertaining to excessive heat.
• Boyd said heat exhaustion is more common than heat strokes. He said heat strokes are more life-threatening, in which the body's heat regulatory system shuts down. That causes the body to lose the ability to sweat and for its temperature to go up. He said if someone is sweating, vomiting and doesn't feel good, they probably have heat exhaustion. If they aren't feeling good and they aren't sweating at all, he said that's dangerous.